


Aurora

by nostalgic_breton_girl



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:48:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24925663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nostalgic_breton_girl/pseuds/nostalgic_breton_girl
Summary: Julienne begs a deeper understanding of the Clear Skies shout, which she uses for a rather spectacular purpose.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	Aurora

It is, I think, quite unlike me to ask anything in excess, out of lack of confidence more than anything else; but when Paarthurnax asked if there was anything he might yet do for me, before I departed, I did not hesitate when I asked:

‘I would... I should like your... your understanding of Clear Skies.’

‘Indeed!’

I had been already granted the Greybeards’ comprehension of the same, and yet I found myself unerringly drawn towards the knowledge. – Did he look at me differently, when I demanded an understanding of that Shout which would give me control over the weather, that greatest and most towering of elements? – I doubt anything would surprise an ancient dovah such as him, in truth, but certainly I had surprised myself rather, with the demand.

‘I will grant you a greater understanding of the Words, if you wish it: that you may take its meaning into yourself... Consider _Lok_ , sky.’

I looked up, to the heavens, and back to Paarthurnax, who continued, not without a hint of uncharacteristic passion:

‘To you on land, the sky is but a faded representation of its nature... See the sky as those who soar within it, and it is an infinity of currents, of colours, and brightness; the careless may see it as entirely transitory, confuse the sky with the clouds that cross it, when it is in truth ever-changing and constant, a paradox. To clear the skies is not to alter the weather, but to draw on the fluctuations of the sky itself. _Su’um ahrk morah_! Will you look past the grounded perception, and see the sky as a true _Dovakhiin_?’

I drew a breath, focused upon the imparted wisdom: and suddenly my mind soared, high above the world, and earthly concerns, and I flew, I flew with dragon’s wings!... saw paths in the sky, and a chaotic order I had never perceived before!... Oh! this was what I had wanted...

‘Thank you...’ I murmured in breathless excitement.

Then, overeager:

‘What of _Vah_? and _Koor_?’

At this his eyes became a little duller, which I had not expected; he did not speak for a good moment, but at last:

‘What greater wisdom may I impart,’ said he: ‘who have seen many millennia of springs and summers? – Ah! to possess the naïve wisdom of the _joorre_! you who yet rejoice at the coming of spring, for you have seen so few, and the winter seemed so long!’

I awaited his explanation; I did not quite know if he spoke laughingly, or ruefully, or if he was mocking.

‘ _Vah_! spring...’ said he: ‘a renewal, an end, a beginning. To understand the spring is to understand the creation of life itself, to look upon an empty forest, and possess the imagination and the power to bring it to life; the understanding that such life will not last for ever; the courage to know that, in its time, it will return... That is the spring: _su’um ahrk morah_! What will you create? Have you the strength to accept the fluctuation of living creation?’

I had seen spring as bluebell woods, and tiny insistent fledglings in a nest; the Greybeards had taught me spring as the thaw, and the coming of life, the edge of summer; I was stunned before this new understanding, had not known spring as such a bittersweet force... Yet I accepted such fluctuation, I knew it would help serve my purposes, at the least. I thanked him, and put to him my final query, that of his comprehension of the summer.

‘ _Koor_ ,’ said he: ‘the summer is brightness, life in full; it is to you to decide: will you see summer as colour, and glory; or will you perceive it as life oppressive, as stifling? Summer may be overwhelming, or beautiful; it may be both; _su’um ahrk morah_ , Dovahkiin, you admire and suffer the summer more than I have in an age, it is to you to decide what you will do with your understanding.’

That concluded the conversation as much as the segment; I thought awhile upon summer, and upon the other Words, and let what Paarthurnax had imparted mingle with the Greybeards’ understanding, and my own. I had been given much to consider, certainly. Knowledge beyond mortal understanding, knowledge of the towering forces of creation! and I possessed it, and I had only to choose what to do with it...

* * *

‘What do you think you will do with such knowledge?’ said Arcadia, back at camp, quite the expected question.

‘It... it is power more than I like,’ I stammered, and hesitated a long moment.

‘It is power... the force, the raw force of... of nature itself, I suppose... I can part the clouds, cast away the... mists, the fog, the rain, the winds, Divines! what... I do not know what I shall... what I can do with it?’

If Arcadia was curious, Marcurio was a little more guarded, and Lydia looked frankly nervous; we sat there, in the quiet of the night, thinking, imagining...

Night; – and the nights are long, in Skyrim, the terror of the insomniac, and the revelry of the darkness...

Night: and there was a shadow across the moons...

_Lok_ : the sky, that infinity, that sky which I soared, unbound; currents, and facets, which I had not before seen; the sky, a rebounding jewel, a marvel! _Vah_ : the spring, life erupting, life, which we might venerate, while it lasted, and not look back to the cold dark winter! _Koor_ : summer, powerful summer, brightness and overwhelming colour!

I stood, felt my friends’ eyes upon me.

I cast their gaze from my mind, and let the Words fill it, and with all the power of the dragon within me, I Shouted.

It was as if the world had shifted, not just the clouds: the very ground trembled, as if I had summoned its forces, as well as those of the sky. But rather than fire and destruction, power and force, my Words were followed by an eclipsing peace, and by the terrified retreat of that shadow before the moons.

Masser gleamed more than ever before, and Secunda sparked, and the stars were aflame, at my call; but that was not my purpose, no, my creation came afterwards, and flooded the sky, the aurora.

I had never seen an aurora so brilliant, or so encompassing: and nor had my friends, for they too stood, one by one, in dazzled awe. Threads of colour, _koor_ ; the flight of darkness, _vah_ ; the sky as a dragon may see it, _lok_! I wove the tapestry quickly, and nimbly, but conscious of my power, wondering where I might take it, whether I might spread the spectacle to all of Skyrim, whether I might cover the sky, and so the world, in this divine cascade.

And when I stopped to admire the finished creation – left it to the turbulence of nature – I was so entirely overwhelmed that I fell my knees, could think of nought but Kynareth, and that gift which she had bestowed upon me...

That gift, which I had so resented, which I had so regretted!

That gift, which I had thought a force for evil, which I had thought destructive, which I had scarcely believed myself to possess, which I had not wanted –

– and which filled the sky now with colour, my heart with light, oh! perhaps I could come to like it, after all...

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to anne wild on tumblr who sent the prompt 'aurora'!


End file.
